From "The Analyst":
UKRAINE STRIKES BACK!
The Russians, having drawn in yet more meat for the grinder, began another attempt to take Stepove yesterday. They have to use the same roadways to deliver troops to the front and Ukraine’s artillery forces hammer these on approaching their drop off points. The men then walk to the front. As they do this the Ukrainians make a short tactical retreat, allowing the Russians over the rail lines into the tree lines either side of the devastated hamlet. Suicide drones and artillery then turns the Russians into corpses. The number of bodies, evidenced by extensive video is horrific. Roughly speaking 58 corpses per 100m per attack. Yet again the Russians were wiped out yet they show every intention of trying again.
Being aware that Russian forces were regrouping for wider attacks in Avdivka, Ukraine launched another HIMARS strike on extensive fuel support stores in the Donetsk area - now at least four have been hit and Russian channels are deeply unhappy about how easy and impactful these strikes have been.
Ukraine also deployed Su-25’s to strike a battalion HQ successfully.
On the wider anti-logistics front Storm Shadow reappeared and caused mayhem in Taganrog where the rail line that connects Donetsk and Horlivka enters Russia and is responsible for much of the supply to forces operating around Avdivka.
A mass drone strike also hit the Russian air base near Rostov where at least 20 Su-34M’s are known to be based. Russia always claims to shoot every drone down as a matter of course, but this seems far from true based on limited video.
Conditions on the front remain pretty poor. Dirt roads are mostly deep mud and getting about - especially along the southern front, is more than demanding.
Ukraine may have used its new long range drone on Rostov. These are ugly but hard to detect, cost around $15k and carry a 32kg warhead. They can fly as far as 750km-950km. They also have a nine-unit networking capability to work together during their mission.
Clearly Ukraine has decided the best way of stopping the Russian attacks is prevent them from building up enough material to carry them out as effectively as they would otherwise do.
The Russians and several analysts also thought Ukraine had used all of the StormShadow missiles - frankly I didn’t believe it as their analysis was extrapolation based - and clearly the video shows two such missiles, so they were wrong.
Overall Ukraine seems to be confident in its new approach - cutting the ingredients down means less meat for the grinders and what gets there is easier to deal with and less effective.
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦!